STANZ speaker profile: Goranka Bjedov from Facebook

27Jul

If you’re interested in testing you’ll want to hear what testing experts have to say on the subject. At this year’s STANZ (Software Testing Australia New Zealand conference) there will be presentations from four international testing experts. Each week we’ll tell you a little bit more about each of them. This week we’re introducing Goranka:

Goranka is coming over to Australasia prepared to cause controversy with her keynote speech on The Future of Quality. She will also run a workshop teaching the skills to find and develop skilled testers.

Goranka is interested in performance, capacity and reliability analysis, as well as test planning. She is currently the Capacity Planning Engineer at Facebook but she has also spent five years performance testing at Google and worked for Network Appliance and AT&T Labs so she has lots of real world testing experience. Before becoming a tester she was an Associate Professor at the Purdue University Schools of Engineering so she’s pretty smart too.

Somehow Goranka has also found the time to write papers, presentations and two textbooks. She regularly speaks at conferences around the world and spoke at STANZ in 2007. After that event the feedback was so fantastic that we’ve been trying to get her back ever since and we’re very excited to see what she has to say this year.

This talk addresses the impact of changes such as Cloud, Open Source and Software Complexity on testing and test professionals. Goranka has spent two years researching this topic and spoken to hundreds of testers about it.

The future can seem scary, with start-ups popping up everywhere working out how to offer the same product or service as you for less money by using Cloud or Open Source to drive down costs. At the same time established companies have extremely complex software systems within which it is almost impossible to isolate single layers and identify what they do. Goranka is going to discuss quality in the context of our changing world and technology. And when we say quality, it might not be what you have traditionally thought of as quality because quality the way you may currently think of it doesn’t count anymore. Find out why.

Anyone who has recruited in the testing space will be familiar with the following questions:

What are the characteristics and skills of good software testers?

How do you check or interview a person for a testing position?

What types of people make bad testers?

How do you develop potential, if you do not have an experienced team?

If you work in testing you’ll have no doubt come across other testers with incredibly varied levels of skill and knowledge. It can be a frustrating thing. Goranka will introduce simple methods of checking if someone has a developer or tester mindset. She’ll also give you a list of topics, games and exercises to sharpen the skills of your testing team.

In conclusion Goranka is a clever and engaging speaker who will deliver two useful and inspiring presentations. And she is only one part of a packed two-day conference, so go and book your ticket for STANZ.

Still need convincing? (man, tough crowd) Then watch this video of Goranka give a talk about open source tools for performance testing at Google: